Former DOD Employee Convicted of Assaulting Serviceman in Korea – The Vacaville Reporter

A former Defense Department civilian employee was sentenced Thursday in federal court in Sacramento to one year and eight months in prison for assaulting a U.S. service member in July 2020, a U.S. attorney and others said.

According to court documents, Gerald Leon Ray III, 27, of Lathrop in the Central Valley, intentionally punched the victim in the face near Osan Air Base, a U.S. military installation in the Republic of Korea.

In a news release, U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert said the assault caused the victim to fall, hit her head on the sidewalk and suffer serious bodily injuries. Evidence showed that without the immediate medical attention she received, the victim, who has not been identified, could have died.

His injuries included a broken jaw, brain hemorrhage and lingering physical and mental health symptoms. At the time, Ray was employed in the Republic of Korea, aka South Korea, by the Defense Commissary Agency, an agency of the DOD, on base.

The charge was brought under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, which establishes U.S. jurisdiction over certain offenses committed abroad by, among other things, civilian employees of the U.S. armed forces.

Ray had already pleaded guilty on March 21 to assault resulting in serious bodily injury, pleading in a U.S. Justice Department court in the Eastern District of California, headed by Talbert.

The U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations and the FBI investigated this matter, with assistance from the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division and the U.S. Marshals Service, in connection with the arrest, detention initial and transportation of Ray, Talbert noted in the prepared statement. .

The prosecution was led by Attorney Marie Zisa of the Criminal Division's Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section and Assistant United States Attorney Heiko P. Coppola for the Eastern District of California.